F-35 fighter jet's escalating costs are on Washington's radar

The weapons program, whose price tag has nearly doubled to about $400 billion since 2001, is flying into a fierce budget battle in Congress. It's also taking flak from allies that are helping foot the bill.

The radar-evading F-35 fighter jet, a nearly $400-billion weapons program under development for more than a decade, is facing its worst turbulence since Washington decided to buy it in 2001 — when it was billed as the most affordable, lethal and survivable military aircraft ever built for the U.S. and its allies.

At a time when federal spending is under a microscope, the plan to develop and build 2,443 airplanes is hundreds of billions of dollars over budget. The F-35, known as the Joint Strike Fighter, has been delayed by glitches in its onboard computer systems, cracks in structural components and troubles with its electrical system.

A two-star general serving as the military's project manager was fired over the program's never-ending problems. The Pentagon has delayed orders of the aircraft, and the fighter jet is caught in the middle of a major spending fight in Congress. What's more, the plane has roiled political debate in Canada, the Netherlands and other allies that are picking up 10% of the development costs.

The Obama administration wants to delay the purchase of 179 jets to save $15 billion. But there is pressure to cut more. Next week, the Pentagon's F-35 program manager is set to testify before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Although much of the debate is taking place in Washington, the melodrama is being closely watched in Southern California, where much is at stake. Only last week, executives of F-35 maker Lockheed Martin Corp. made an appearance in El Segundo to remind local businesses and aerospace workers that the F-35 will have a huge financial effect in the years to come — pumping an estimated $6 billion into the state's economy and creating 27,000 jobs.

"The state of California has a huge stake in this," said Danny Conroy, one of Lockheed's directors of the F-35 program. "California is the single biggest supplier base for the F-35 in the country."

Northrop Grumman Corp.is one of 260 companies in California that supply the program — far more than any other state. And the subcontractors are feeling the delays that have plagued many aspects of the F-35.

Northrop, for instance, has 1,665 employees in Palmdale, San Diego and El Segundo working on the program. But it is a fraction of the number of people Northrop had expected to hire by now.

In El Segundo, the company makes 100 parts for the stealth fighter jet. As the second work shift began last week, Northrop manager Chip Oppenlander scanned the vast factory floor and remarked on the dozens of unused workstations.

"I expected things to be much busier by now," he said, wringing his large hands. "We've hired about half as many people as initially planned."

The Pentagon's long-term vision is to replace today's fighter fleets, which have an average age of 22 years. It is centered around a plan to develop one basic fighter plane that could — with a few tweaks — be used on runways and aircraft carriers, and hover like a helicopter for joint use by the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps.

The one-size-fits-all approach has never been tried before, and when test flights began in 2006, problems soon followed. The flaws have been so complicated and so costly that they have put the program nearly a decade behind schedule. The program's costs — once estimated at $233 billion — have skyrocketed to about $396 billion, the Pentagon said last month.

Still, the Pentagon remains dedicated to the program, saying the F-35 is vital to national security in the 21st century.

"As part of the defense strategy that the United States went through and has put in place, we have made very clear that we are 100% committed to the development of the F-35," said Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta last month after a meeting with Mexican and Canadian military leaders. "We absolutely need it for the future."

But the drawn-out development is infuriating to some in Congress because the program was sold as a way to maintain costs and shorten the procurement process by avoiding building three planes on three assembly lines.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) reminded fellow lawmakers of this in December, when he took to the Senate floor to criticize the program.

"The Joint Strike Fighter program has been both a scandal and a tragedy," McCain said. "We are saddled with a program that has little to show for itself after 10 years and $56 billion in taxpayer investment that has produced less than 20 test and operational aircraft."

The Pentagon's latest estimated lifetime costs of the F-35 program — to develop, buy, and maintain the planes over 55 years — topped $1.5 trillion.